Karen Marie Moning

“All those 'bloodys' was a veritable cornucopia of emotion for Barrons.”

“Nuns? They'd take one look at Barrons and decide the devil himself had come knockng. He not only looked dangerous, he emanated something that made even me feel like crossing myself sometimes, and I'm not religious.”

“Being nearly naked around Barrons felt a lot like going to a shark convention lightly basted in blood.”

“I'd vowed years ago to go to the grave the same way I'd been born, just a lot more wrinkly.”

“If I have to chain you to a fucking wall to protect you from your own stupidity, I will!Wrists. Beam. Chained already Barrons. Come up with a new threat.”

“Omnipotent not omniscient. We are frequently blinded by how much we see.”

“We were watching Barrons.Why were you watching Barrons?Barrons needs watching.”

“You mean you have to be epic already, for it to make you more epic?”

“He goes for stark versus accessorized, dark over bright, jewel tone instead of pastel, carnal over flirty.”

“The two of you are getting downright chatty, aren't you, Ms. Lane? When did you last see him? what else did he tell you?I'm asking the questions tonight.If an illusion of control comforts you, Ms. Lane, by all means, cling to it.”

“I hope when I'm ninety-five the only things I want are free: love, family, a good home-cooked meal.”

“I was stunned to see that he looked stunned himself, which was an exorbitant display of emotion for Barrons.”

“I don't believe Barrons is out to destroy mankind. I don't think he particularly cares much for mankind, but I don't think he has any deep-seated desire to see us all wiped out.”

“Do your thing, Ms. Lane. you might be criminally young, but the night is not.”

“No way. I'm not going in there. I draw the line at grave-robbing, Barrons.It's not your pen.”

“Gazelles didn't lie down with lions, at least not unbloodied and alive.”

“Barrons had just given me the most carnal, sexually charged hungry look I'd ever seen in my life, and I was pretty sure he didn't even know he had done it.”

“You need me as much as I need you. That makes us equal partners in my book.Well, your book is just wrong.”

“Holy water at my wrists and behind my ears; my version of Eau de Don'tbiteme”

“I wondered what one wore to visit a vampire. The chic red sweater set didn't go so well with my darker hair, and I was afraid it might be construed as a flirtatious invitation to color me bloodier.”

“I don't know about you, but I call impromptu vomiting harm.”

“I began peering into the corners of the room, making sure all the shadows were cast by objects and obeying known laws of physics.”

“Beautiful women rarely possess sufficient depth of character to survive without their pretty feathers.”

“I hammered him with my fists. He just stood and took it. He didn't suffer graciously, he looked pissed off to no end. But he let me hit him. And he didn't hit me back.”

“He was on me before my brain processed the fact that he was coming for me.”

“Basque and Celt. Criminals and barbarians. I didn't think there could be a more primitive pairing of genes.”

“He wasn't just masculine and sexual, he was carnal in a set-your-teeth-on-edge kind of way; he was almost frightning.”

“Woman, you are a thousand kinds of fool.”

“If you are not with me, you are against me. I have no mercy for my enemies.”

“He just didn't look like the kind of creep that would messily murder a woman in her hotel room; he looked like the kind of creep that could line her up in the sights of an assassins rifle without a shred of emotion.”

“He'd surely been spawned by some cataclysmic event of nature, not born.”

“Being threatened seems to being out the worst in me.”

“Feelings, emotions - they are neither right nor wrong. They cannot be assigned a value. Feelings *are*. By labeling a feeling wrong, you force yourself to ignore that feeling. And what you most need is to feel it, let it burn through you, then get on with life.”

“Gwen Cassidy needed a man.Desperately.Failing that, she'd settle for a cigarette.”

“The man kisses me and I just hop right on him like he's the hottest new ride at Disneyland.”

“I can't find a man I want, and I'm beginning to think the problem is me. Maybe I expect too much. Maybe I'm holding out for something that doesn't even exist." She'd voiced her secret fear. Maybe grand passion was just a dream. With all the kissing she'd done in the past few months, she'd not once been overcome with desire. Her parents certainly hadn't had any great passion between them. Come to think of it, she wasn't sure she'd ever seen grand passion outside of a movie theater or a book.”

“Unpredictable as a hungry lion, he might be feared by everyone else, but he never ripped out my throat, only licked me, and, if his tongue was a little rough sometimes, it was worth it to walk beside the king of the jungle.”

“Then why was his tongue in your mouth? Was he conducting a clinical test of your gag reflex?" He smiled, but not nicely. "How is your gag reflex, Ms. Lane? Are you a hair trigger?"Barrons likes to use sexual innuendo to try to shut me up. I think he expects the well-raised southern belle in me will think eew and back off. Sometimes, I do think eew, but I don't back off. "I'm a spitter, if that's what you're asking." I flashed him a too-sweet smile."Didn't look that way to me. I think you're a swallower. His tongue was halfway to China and you were still taking it.""Jealous?”

“I gained everything. Or at least I'll think so," he growled, suddenly impatient, anxious, "when you give me a bloody answer to my bloody question. How many times are you going to make me ask you? Will you marry me, Gabrielle O'Callaghan? Yes or yes? And in case you're still managing to miss the point, the correct answer is 'yes.' And, by the way, anytime you'd like to tell me you love me, I wouldn't mind hearing it.”

“For the record, Irish," he informed her tightly, just in case she got the wrong idea, "I kneel to no one.”

“Think you two puny Druids can hold this keep for a single night?”

“Och, woman,” he said softly, “you show me Heaven and ask me to revisit Hell? Not now, sweet Jessica. Now is for us.No grim thoughts. Only us .”

“Ah, ka-lyrra, I look at you and you make me want to live a man's life with you. To wake with you and sleep with you, argue with you and make love with you, to get a silly human job and take walks in the park and live so tiny beneath such a vast sky. But I will never stay with another human woman and water her die. Never. --FROM THE (GREATLY REVISED) BLACK EDITION OF THE O'CALLAGHAN Book of the Sin Siriche Du”

“Abruptly, she knew that after this night she was never going to be the same again. Nothing was ever going to be the same. Oh, yes, the man could define himself as the dawning of an epoch if he wanted to. There was, quite simply, before Adam and after Adam.”

“And now she was just Gabby, currently staying in a dreamy, magnificent castle in Scotland with a Fae prince who did all kinds of non-nasty, non-inhuman things like tearing up lists of names, and returning tadpoles to lakes, and saving people's lives. Not to mention kissing with all the otherwordly splendor of a horny angel.”

“I never thought there might be one like you out there. Unaware, untrained.Unbelievable. You have no idea what you are, do you?”“Crazy?”

“There were twenty-three females on the Keltar estate--not counting Gwen, Chloe, herself, or the cat--Gabby knew, because shortly after Adam had become visible last night, she'd met each and every one, from tiniest tot to tottering ancient. It had begun with a plump, thirtyish maid popping in to pull the drapes for the evening and inquire if the MacKeltars "were wishing aught else?" The moment her bespectacled gaze had fallen on Adam, she'd begun stammering and tripping over her own feet. It had taken her a few moments to regain a semblance of coordination, but she'd managed to stumble from the library, nearly upsetting a lamp and a small end table in her haste. Apparently it had been haste to alert the forces, for a veritable parade had ensued: a blushing curvaceous maid had come offering a warm-up of tear (they'd not been having any), followed by a giggling maid seeking a forgotten dust cloth (which--was anyone surprised?--was nowhere to be found), then a third one looking for a waylaid broom (yeah, right--they swept castles at midnight in Scotland--who believed that?), then a fourth, fifth, and sixth inquiring if the Crystal Chamber would do for Mr. Black (no one seemed to care what chamber might do for her; she half-expected to end up in an outbuilding somewhere). A seventh, eighth, and ninth had come to announce that his chamber was ready would he like an escort? A bath drawn? Help undressing? (Well, okay, maybe they hadn't actually asked the last, but their eyes certainly had.)Then a half-dozen more had popped in at varying intervals to say the same things over again, and to stress that they were there to provide "aught, aught at all Mr. Black might desire."The sixteenth had come to extract two tiny girls from Adam's lap over their wailing protests (and had stayed out of his lap herself only because Adam had hastily stood), the twenty-third and final one had been old enough to be someone's great-great-grandmother, and even she'd flirted shamelessly with the "braw Mr. Black," batting nonexistent lashes above nests of wrinkles, smoothing thin white hair with a blue-veined, age-spotted hand. And if that hadn't been enough, the castle cat, obviously female and obviously in heat, had sashayed in, tail straight up and perkily curved at the tip, and would her furry little self sinuously around Adam's ankles, purring herself into a state of drooling, slanty-eyed bliss. Mr. Black, my ass, she'd wanted to snap (and she liked cats, really she did; she'd certainly never wanted to kick one before, but please--even cats?), he's a fairy and I found him, so that him my fairy. Back off.”

“He had a come-and-get-me-baby-I'm-pure-trouble-and-you're-gonna-love-it kind of attitude.”

“Finally, Dageus finished, and she heard Gwen and Chloe say simultaneously, breathlessly, "Oh, my God."Gabby opened her eyes. Drustan had risen to his feet and was scowling, an expression mirrored by his twin. Both were glaring at Adam--whom they obviously could now see. Then at their wives, then back at Adam.”

“Gwen smiled. "Hardly. Bedraggled is being in the full throes of nicotine withdrawal, and after a week on a bus with a group of senior citizens, falling into a cave, and landing on a body.""And then getting tossed back a few centuries, with no idea of what's going on," Chloe agreed. "Naked, too, weren't you?"Gwen nodded wryly. Gabby blinked. "I gave you my plaid," Drustan protested indignantly.”